Wednesday, March 13, 2013

A Visitor Parked In The Western Sky



"I never really thought about how I look at the moon. It's the same moon Shakespeare and Marie Antoinette and George Washington and Cleopatra looked at."

~Susan Beth Pfeffer, Life As We Knew It

There is a rumor that if you go outside, just after dusk, you will see something special in the western sky. It's a comet, and it's called Comet Pan- Starrs (C/2011 L4). I checked out the western sky at sundown, and I saw the bright silvery bottom outline of the moon, but there wasn't any sign of the comet. It should have been positioned to the left of the moon, a slight angle down in the sky. I didn't see it, but I think it was being obscured by a small amount of wispy clouds that were in the same general direction.

I heard from the doctor, and as it turns out I don't have Whooping cough, I have a fairly new virus that mimics Whooping cough. THANK GOD! I will still have about a 2 week recovery, but I won't have to do any of the unpleasant things Whooping cough would have demanded. And more importantly, Alan won't have to walk around in a mask, take anti-biotics, or inform his coworkers that they may have been exposed to the highly contagious, painful, stupid, coughing spasm disease.

False Alarm!

My virus is a poser! Let's hear it for posers everywhere! RAH RAH RAH!

See, kept my word!

Anyway, back to the sky watching. I am going to try to get enough rest so I can venture out tonight, only this time I will drive down Grizzly Peak to my favorite spot, where I have a better, unobstructed view of the sky. The same basic place where I do my sunset photos over the bay should do nicely. Wish me luck! I think I will stop at either Panera or this wonderful little Chinese restaurant I frequent, and grab some soup for the trip. I am not sure which place will win out, both offer such different experiences, but both are wicked good so either way I win. Now, if the medicine kicks in and does it's job, and the twilight sky doesn't let me down, I think I will have something special to show you tomorrow!

Stay Tuned!

*If you would like to join me in photographing our visiting celestial visitor, pop over to SpaceWeather.com to get yourself a sky map and be sure to stop and take a look at the wonderful images of the comet compiled so far!



Mood: Hopeful

~Me :)

2 comments:

sunflowerkat said...

So glad to hear it's not Whooping Cough. I hope you're feeling better soon.

Good luck with your comet spotting! I hadn't heard of this and I want to see if perhaps it is also visible from the east coast. I know where I can go and get a good clear western view, but light pollution might be a big problem.

Call me Paul said...

I've wanted to try and check out Pan-Starrs, but we've had a straight run of solid cloud for days up here
:(